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Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed? I installed a Citrix receiver client so that I can work from home for my employer and all is functioning perfectly. To accomplish this I had to download a .deb file from Citrix.com in order to get the client program on my computer. Now that it’s installed and working properly, can I delete the original .deb file that is currently sitting in my Downloads folder, without inadvertently removing the entire program from my computer? In Windows we can delete the .exe file(s) after we’ve installed a program and nothing is affected, but I wasn’t sure if this was the same case in Linux. Thanks in advance for your assistance and for this thread!

1Canuck wrote:Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed?

Yes, the file is just needed for the installation. Also if you want to remove an installed program, you don't need the .deb file for that. Sometimes it can be handy to have the .deb file for easily reinstalling the program, for example if it was broken for some reason. But you could always download it again.

1Canuck wrote:Can I delete a .deb file that I downloaded from an external source, after the program has successfully installed?

Yes, the file is just needed for the installation. Also if you want to remove an installed program, you don't need the .deb file for that. Sometimes it can be handy to have the .deb file for easily reinstalling the program, for example if it was broken for some reason. But you could always download it again.

hal8000 wrote:The above packages were compiled for earlier versions of Lisa and Isadoraso theres a good chance they are looking for different libraries and may not work,can anyone confirm if this is the case?

Not sure, but as Linux Mint uses Ubuntu as a package base I'd normally search the Ubuntu package base for such packages. You can do that at http://packages.ubuntu.com/. Searching for qucs indeed shows it isn't available for Linux Mint 14 (which is based on Ubuntu quantal) though it is available for Linux Mint 13 (which is based on Ubuntu precise). BTW, you can check at http://www.linuxmint.com/oldreleases.php which Ubuntu package base is used by your Linux Mint release.

So qucs is available for Linux Mint 13, here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/qucs. From that page it looks like perhaps it might work on Linux Mint 14. At the bottom you can click your architecture (amd64 for 64 bit, i386 for 32 bit) and then download this package. You can then double-click it in your file manager and GDebi will open and offer to install it if all libraries that are needed are found.

However, it appears there is no active maintainer for qucs and thus it hasn't been packaged for the Ubuntu base used with Linux Mint 14. That sometimes happens; if nobody is interested in maintaining a package and it isn't something that is needed for the core system then it is removed from the repositories. Also Debian, which in turn is used as a package base by Ubuntu, has remove this package due to lack of an active maintainer: http://packages.qa.debian.org/q/qucs.html.

You may try the download as described above, but yes it might turn to you needing to compile from source. You can ask for help with that in the Software & Applications section of the forum. But hopefully it will just go as described in this topic

I don't want to overload new users with information and options Aptitude is nice for those that know how to use it, but I would call it less suitable for users new to Linux. As for apt-get, AFAIK it handles dependencies the same as Software Manager does?

One tip for the Software Manager that I just learned on the IRC since I didn't find it here:The Software Manager stores the .deb package files that it downloads before installing in /var/cache/apt/archives

So, if you have a slow internet connection like me, you can grab installation files from there to pass between computers, or you can delete unwanted packages one-by-one without losing anything that you might want later by opening the folder as root.To clear the whole cache though you just need to run "sudo apt-get clean"

4ndy wrote:One tip for the Software Manager that I just learned on the IRC since I didn't find it here:The Software Manager stores the .deb package files that it downloads before installing in /var/cache/apt/archives

So, if you have a slow internet connection like me, you can grab installation files from there to pass between computers, or you can delete unwanted packages one-by-one without losing anything that you might want later by opening the folder as root.To clear the whole cache though you just need to run "sudo apt-get clean"

So it is safe to keep a copy of the .deb file instead of copying the terminal install instructions in a txt file?i assume the .deb file won't do anything, unless you run it right?can the same analogy be applied to other installers for other oses?

A .deb file is just a container for the program. It doesn't do anything in itself, only when you open it can you install the program from it. You can keep the .deb file an reinstall the program from it later; on the same computer or on another computer..

Checkinstall works only for installing from source; you can't use that on a binary proprietary installer such as usually is the case with a .run file. Usually where you install the program with the installer included in the .run file, you will after installation find either documentation or a script to uninstall it.

I installed Mint 15 KDE, dual booting with Windows 7. I included partitions for /home and /usr. Anyway, I used the Software Manager to add AbiWord and it showed it as being installed. It does not appear anwyhere in the Application Menu.

I thought I might have to edit the menu to manually create a launcher. However, I'm not sure exactly what file I would need to add. I don't see any obvious (to me) executable files in /user/bin or /user/sbin. I do have a folder in /user/share called abiword-2.9, again without obvious executables. What am I missing? Thanks.